


Half the Fun

by speakpirate



Category: Pretty Little Liars
Genre: Emison - Freeform, F/F, Fluff, Halloween, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-07-21 17:17:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7396450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speakpirate/pseuds/speakpirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Emily felt a warm hand on her arm.  Alison.  “Emily loves scary movies.  You’ll come with me, won’t you, Em?”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Emily hoped she wasn’t blushing.  She felt kind of like blushing, though, when Ali tilted her head like that and smirked.  Her arm felt tingly where Alison’s skin touched her own.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“You love scary movies?” Hanna asked her, bluntly.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“Sure,” Emily shrugged.  A total lie.  Alison beamed at her, a reward for playing along.</i>
</p><p>How Emily came by her love of scary movies.  Fluff.  </p><p>Contains some descriptions of gross things that happen in horror movies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Half the Fun

**Author's Note:**

> _A very enthusiastic reader and commenter asked for more Emison fic over the weekend, and specifically asked for Fetus Emison and/or a story where they were married with kids. So this is a two-for-one, written as as thank you to Munro for reading._
> 
> _Also, I have not seen any of the Saw movies, I just read the plot description off Wikipedia. I am not a fan of scary movies (have been afraid of clowns ever since watching It, slept with lights on in my dorm room after watching The Shining, etc). I did, however, watch all four of the Scream movies because Neve Campbell is my root._
> 
> \-------------------------------------------------------------

**October 31, 2007**

Emily studied Alison shyly, out of the corner of her eye. She was pretending to look at the prices at the concession stand instead of noticing the way Alison’s jeans clung to her hips in a way that made Emily’s mom frown and cluck her tongue in disapproval. Alison had a calculating look on her face, her red lips pursed and her eyes squinting at the long narrow hallway that led to the theaters. Emily wasn’t allowed to wear makeup yet. Not until high school. Next year.

Something was going on with Ali, though. Hanna was trying to convince Spencer or Aria to split a package of Twizzlers with her, glancing apprehensively over at Alison as she did so. She looked nervous, as if she was just waiting for a cutting remark about licorice hips to crack through the air at any moment. But Alison didn’t even seem to notice.

Hanna was slipping the candy into her purse by the time Alison tossed her long blonde hair and turned her focus back to the group again. “Listen up, ladies. We’re going to see Saw IV.”

“What?!” Aria said, waving their ticket stubs for the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. “What about Johnny Depp?”

“Puh-lease,” Alison scoffs. “He’s scruffier than _Jason_.”

“What if we get caught?” Spencer worried, her eyes big behind her glasses. “They’re never going to believe we’re seventeen.”

“And it’s like, scary and stuff,” Hanna added, dubiously.

“Don’t be a bunch of babies,” Alison chided them. “That theater is going to be full of boys. _Older_ boys. Who, if we’re in there, will assume we are older girls.”

Emily felt her stomach twist in a knot. Older boys looked at Alison all the time. Sometimes men, even. Bridget Wu’s dad. The manager of the Grille, with his oily hair.

Then Emily felt a warm hand on her arm. Alison. “Emily loves scary movies. You’ll come with me, won’t you, Em?”

Emily hoped she wasn’t blushing. She felt kind of like blushing, though, when Ali tilted her head like that and smirked. Her arm felt tingly where Alison’s skin touched her own.

“You love scary movies?” Hanna asked her, bluntly.

“Sure,” Emily shrugged. A total lie. Alison beamed at her, a reward for playing along.

Ali waved a dismissive hand at the others. “Enjoy your little Disney movie,” she said, rolling her eyes as she grabbed the small popcorn from Spencer.

Just like that, Emily found herself being led away from the others, singled out for a special mission. She shot them an apologetic look over her shoulder, but she was secretly delighted to be chosen. 

Alison led them to the theater with supreme confidence, a swagger in her hips that radiated belonging, even when she was headed somewhere she definitely wasn’t supposed to be.

The previews were just ending as Alison selected two seats near the back, far down the row to make them less visible to any ushers who might be patrolling the aisles.

Emily steeled herself to not be scared. She remembered a joke her dad told once, asking one of his army buddies if he knew the difference between acting brave and being brave. The guy didn’t know. “Me neither,” her dad had said, laughing. Maybe it wasn’t actually a joke, now that she thought about it. She sat up a little straighter in her seat, stiffening her spine. 

The movie was gory and horrifying, but _it’s just a movie_ Emily told herself, firmly. She munched on some of the popcorn and almost laughed at the cheesy effects while someone on the screen was being blinded.

It was then that she noticed Alison was a little pale. When the guy on the screen was dismembered, she actually flinched.

“Hey,” Emily whispered, concerned. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Alison hissed. But the next time the music got creepy, she could see Alison’s fingers gripping the armrest so hard that she was leaving half-moon nail marks in the leather upholstery.

Emily tapped her on the wrist and Alison startled, grabbing her hand in a vise grip. “I’m not scared,” Ali insisted, through gritted teeth.

“Don’t worry,” Emily said, feeling Alison’s bracelets pressed tightly against her forearm. “I won’t tell anyone.”

Alison gave her a look that made Emily blush for real this time, grateful the theater was so dark. Ali was still smirking, but her expression seemed like she was maybe laughing at herself a little. Something she never did, normally. Emily felt taller all of a sudden. Alison _trusted_ her. 

Emily was so distracted thinking about this new development, so busy analyzing the way her heart was beating a little faster in her chest because Ali was still clutching her hand and they were sitting so close together that Emily could smell the fancy strawberry scented conditioner Alison always used - she barely noticed another character being gruesomely impaled. 

Alison noticed, though. She buried her head in the soft flannel of Emily’s shoulder.

“Tell me when it’s over,” she said, with a grimace.

The whole left side of her body felt like the time they went to the science museum and she put her hand on the Van de Graaff generator. Like the hairs on her arm were standing up on their own, and the air was thick and full of invisible current.

Emily waited until it had been over for almost a minute, then let Alison know it was safe to look again.

“How are you not terrified?” Alison asked, in a tone that sounded almost impressed.

“It’s not real,” Emily said, simply. It was exactly what a real brave person would say.

The rest of the movie was gross and disturbing and scary, but part of Emily wished it would never end. For the whole last hour, it seemed like Ali never stopped touching her. Squeezing her hand, hanging onto her arm, muffling a shriek by burrowing her face in Emily’s neck. 

Scary movies, Emily decided, were her favorite.

\--------------------------

**October 31, 2027**

Emily flopped down on the couch, exhausted. “They’re finally asleep. I told you we shouldn’t have let them have so much candy before bed.”

“It’s Halloween,” Alison said, running a hand through Emily’s hair soothingly. “They had fun. So what if you had to read a few extra chapters of Harry Potter before they conked out.”

“Four extra chapters,” Emily corrected her, but she was smiling. “Spencer gave out toothbrushes. Again.”

Alison smiled and grabbed the remote. “I have a surprise for you,” she said, setting a bowl of popcorn on the coffee table and pushing a series of buttons until the right movie was up on the television screen. 

Emily sat up and rested her head against Ali’s shoulder. “You know how I feel about the reboot,” she grinned.

“Your wife is willing to watch Saw XVI: The Final Pieces,” Alison teased. “Besides, you can’t be a snob about the new ones when the originals were terrible.”

Emily put an arm around Alison’s shoulder, pulling her close. Two minutes in, and the movie is already at its third graphic decapitation.

“Remember how scared you were?” she asks. “The first time we saw one of these movies?”

“I was not,” Alison said. 

Emily thought about all of the very real terrors they’d made it through together, now mercifully behind them. Permanently. 

“A movie probably isn’t enough to scare you anymore anyway,” she mused. “After - everything.”

One of the detectives on the screen was being forced to strangle himself with his own intestines.

Alison pressed her face into Emily’s shoulder. “Tell me when it’s over.” She planted a series of kisses along Emily’s neck while she waited for the all clear.

“Is it safe to look yet?” she asked, working her way up to Emily’s earlobe, then down her jawline.

“No,” Emily said, breathily. “No, he’s like, making someone wear deer antlers and filet his hunting partner or something.”

Alison turned to look at the screen. “Liar,” she laughed. “That’s a car chase.” 

“But a really terrifying car chase,” Emily giggled. “I didn’t want you to get scared.”

“Can I tell you a secret?” Ali asked, as she crawled onto Emily’s lap, straddling her hips and pulling her in for a kiss. “Acting scared is half the fun.”


End file.
